1981 Gigondas, Domaine de Longue-Toque

Last night we enjoyed this venerable bottle of Gigondas from Domaine de Longue-Toque bought probably in 1983 or 1984 when we used to spend several weeks in a great campsite in a pine forest in the small commune of Faucon a few kilometres north of Vaison La Romaine.  The property is now owned by Gabriel Meffre but then it belonged to Serge Chapalain.

The 1981 is delicately soft and silky, rather like an old Burgundy but with less acidity. Brings back memories a cycling round the area including ascents of Mont Ventoux.

Mont Ventoux from a vineyard in Rasteau 

2016 Tour de France: chaos on Ventoux – 37.5 TT today

Results of Stage 12 to the Ventoux

Unfortunately yesterday's stage on Mont Ventoux, which should have been one of the high points of the Tour, descended into farce and chaos yesterday because the organisers failed to provide proper crowd control close to the shortened finish at Chalet Reynard. Richie Porte, Chris Froome and Bauke Mollema all crashed into a motorbike that appeared to have had to stop suddenly because of the crowds of people on the road. A following motorbike ran into Froome's bike breaking the frame. Fortunately it didn't run over any of the three riders. Had the provisional results of the stage been allowed to stand Froome would have lost a chunk of time as well as the Yellow Jersey. 

Fortunately after an hour's deliberation the Race Jury gave Froome and Porte the same time as Mollema (5'.05), which was surely the only decision they could have made. On the climb Nairo Quintana finally launched a couple of attacks that were swiftly countered by Sky. Soon after Froome attacked and soon dropped Quintana, who appeared not to be at his best yesterday. 

The chaos overshadowed a fine first TDF stage win by Thomas de Gendt, who grabbed the Polka Dot Jersey off the shoulders of Thibaut Pinot, who is reported to have abandoned the Tour today.  

Clearly the Tour organisers will have to rethink crowd security on the Tours major climbs like Ventoux and the Alpe d'Huez.

 

The revised results now give Chris Froome a 47 second lead over the impressive Adam Yates, Nairo Quintana at 54" and Mollema (56"). They are now the only riders with a minute of Froome. Romain Bardet (1'15") is now the only Frenchman in real contention. Among those losing time yesterday were abio Aru and Dan Martin.

Stage 13: Bourg-Saint-Andeol to La Caverne du Pont d'Arc 37.5 kms

Todays TT is a tough test, which should significantly shake up the Overall Standings. Will Chris Froome extend his lead? Will Nairo Quintana shine or fade further? Will be surprised if Froome doesn't consolidate his position.

2016 Tour de France: Sagan wins, Froome gains seconds – Ventoux shortened

 Peter Sagan wins in Montpellier, Chris Froome gains 12 seconds on rivals 

Wind played an important part in yesterday's stage causing several gaps in the peloton and making it a hectic day. Peter Sagan along with his team mate – Maciej Bodnar – made the decisive break some 12k before the finish. Only Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas were able to get onto their wheels. The quartet raced flat out – at one time gaining a little over 20 seconds on their rivals. Sagan won the sprint, while Froome finished six seconds ahead + a six second time bonus. This now puts him 28 seconds ahead of Adam Yates, who has extended his lead in the White Jersey competition to 1'.42 over Louis Meintjes, who had presumably got caught out by the wind. Peter Sagan has further cemented his hold on the Green Jersey, especially as Cav had a mechanical problem.      

Stage 12: Montpellier to Mont Ventoux  – Chalet ReynardHigh winds has caused this stage to be shortened with the finish at Chalet Reynard rather than on the mountain top because of the forecast of winds over 100kms at the summit and on 4˚C. It will still be a steep climb up to the finish but will be protected by the trees. There should still be some gaps between the GC riders. High winds may also play a part before the Ventoux is reached.  

Tour de l'oc: Wine trade charity ride from Tain-l'Hermitage to Collioure via Le Ventoux

The Ventoux from Rasteau January 2006

The Drinks Business:

'The ride will begin on Monday 1 June when the cyclists head south from a start point at the M. Chapoutier winery in Tain l’Hermitage, finishing at Collioure near the Spanish border on Thursday the same week – and the challenge has been dubbed the Tour de L’Oc, after the ancient name for the region, Occitania.

Organised by Mentzendorff managing director Andrew Hawes, this is the ninth charity cycle ride led by the head of the UK wine importer for Bollinger Champagne, and probably the hardest. Taking in the punishing ascent of Mont Ventoux, the intrepid wine trade cyclists will have to climb the 1912 metre mountain, famous for its barren summit and high winds.'

'Importantly, the aim of the cycling challenge is to raise a target of £30,000 of vital funds for the drinks industry charity The Benevolent.'

Read the rest here.

The ten cyclists include Patrick Schmitt, the editor of The Drinks Business: 
 

Patrick Schmitt:
'For the first time in four years I’m bringing out my bicycle for more than the daily 10 kilometre trundle to work, and this time it’s for the toughest challenge I've ever entered. Starting in the northern Rhône in Tain-l'Hermitage on 1 June, and finishing four days later in the coastal town of Collioure, I’ll be covering around 500km across some of France’s most extreme terrain.

In particular, I’ll be climbing just short of 2,000m in a single ascent as the route includes Mount Ventoux – the hardest climb of the legendary Tour de France, and famous among biking fans for claiming the life of English cyclist Tom Simpson.
My preparation? A few rides round Richmond park. I’ve also bought some new rims for my bike, which is now almost 15 years old and dented and scratched like a beer keg.

Like the last long distance ride I attempted in 2011, this is a personal test, but it’s also for an extremely good cause, so once more I’ll be raising funds for The Benevolent – The Drinks Industry Charity. I urge you to visit their website to read more about their good work, but I should say here that it’s being brilliantly run by David Cox to really support the most needy in the drinks trade.

All that's left to say is thank you very much for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page and any donation would be hugely appreciated.'

https://www.justgiving.com/Patrick-Schmitt1

https://www.justgiving.com/Andrew-Hawes3/ 

https://www.justgiving.com/AlanMontagueDennis2015/https://www.justgiving.com/AlanMontagueDennis2015/

I hope the ride goes well. Certainly climbing Mont Ventoux, I assume from the Bedoin side, was the toughest climb I ever did. It's a long, steep unrelenting climb and likely to take some of them a good two hours. I trust, in addition, to buying new rims for his bike, Patrick has made sure that he has suitably low gears for the Ventoux.   

#TDF13: Froome's triumph on Ventoux prompts doubts

Mont Ventoux from a vineyard in Rasteau

Chris Froome produced a great ride on Ventoux yesterday to win the stage and pulverise his rivals. He is the first holder of the Yellow jersey to win on Ventoux since Eddy Merckx in 1970. Sky, in particular Peter Kennaugh and Richie Porte, did a great job in thinning the peloton down to just Alberto Contador by the time there was 7 kilometres to go. At this point Porte peeled off and Froome attacked Contador pedalling at a very high cadence but remaining sitting in the saddle – often riders stand on the pedals to launch an attack. Contador rapidly fell away unable to match Froome's speed. 

Nairo Quintana had previously attacked (12K from top) and built up a maximum advantage of some 40 seconds, which Porte's acceleration pulled back to no more than 10/15. Froome quickly caught Quintana a little before Chalet Reynaud. They stayed together despite several attacks by Froome until within two kilometres of the summit and just by the Tommy Simpson Memorial, when Quintana cracked. On the finishing line Froome had 29 seconds on Quintana and much bigger chunks on the rest of his rivals – Mikel Nieve and Joaquim Rodriguez (1.23 min), Romain Kreuziger and Alberto Contador (1.40), Jakob Fulsang (1.43), Bauke Mollema (1.46), Laurens ten Dam (1.53), Jean-Christophe Peraud (2.08) and Alejandro Valverde (2.32).

Earlier Froome had benefitted from long stints by Europcar and Movistar on the front of the peloton to limit the gains of the breakaway. 

Yesterday's victory takes Froome's TDF stage wins to three. 

Perhaps because they failed to properly investigate Lance Armstrong, some of the Press has been keen to express doubts over Froome and Sky's claims that their riders are clean. There have also been many comments on Twitter.

All this is suspicion. There is no evidence that Chris Froome is not clean: he hasn't tested positive and the biological passport makes doping more difficult than it did even in Armstrong's time. I'm not surprised he dropped Contador, who is not the same rider as he was in 2009. Alberto has lost his thrilling acceleration on the climbs, had a horrible time on the climb to Ax 3 Domaines and clearly blew just before the end of the Ventoux climb yesterday. Quintana, who is only 23, may well have made his effort too early, so was unable to match Froome at the end of the climb. Also in last year's Tour it was pretty clear that Froome could out climb everyone else including Nibali and had to be restrained by Sky from tearing off up several mountains. 

Until I have good reason to doubt I'm ready to accept David Brailsford, Froome and Sky's explanation that Chris' performance is down to the training programme that harnesses his natural ability. After all Brailsford transformed UK track cycling. It is very sad but not surprising that the recent history of doping with Armstrong and many others along with the failure of leadership by the UCI has tarred cycling. This hasn't, however, stopped many thousands from coming out to watch Le Tour.  

Overall standings after Stage 15    

  

 1. Chris Froome                       61.11.43
 2. Bauke Mollema                        4.14

 3. Alberto Contador                     4.25

 4. Roman Kreuziger                     2.28

 5. Laurens Ten Dam                    4.54 
 6. Nairo Quintana                        5.18 (White Jersey for best young rider)
 7. Jacob Fuglsang                        6.22

 8. Joaquin Rodriguez                    7.11

 9. Jean-Christophe Peraud            7.47 (the leading French rider)

10. Michal Kwiatkowski                  7.58 

11. Daniel Martin                          8.28

12. Michael Rogers                        9.54
13. Andrew Talansky                    12.32

14. Maxime Monfort                     13.47

15. Alejandro Valverde                 14.42

16. Cadel Evans                          15.40
17. Mikel Nieve                           18.12
18. Andy Schleck                        19.14

19. Daniel Moreno                       21.42

20. Daniel Navarro                      23.36

   

  

  

     

#TDF13 Matteo Trentin seizes win in Lyon – Ventoux beckons!

Mont Ventoux from a vineyard in Rasteau

Yesterday proved to be the day when a big break (18 riders) was allowed to stay away to the finish. It took some 40 kms before the peloton gave the break its head but once the lead stretched out, the main group headed by Sky enjoyed a fairly relaxed ride to Lyon.

On the way into Lyon it looked as though Julien Simon might pull off a long solo win for France but he ran out of gas and was caught by the rest of the break with around a kilometre to go. It looked as though Michel Albasini was going to win the sprint when Matteo Trentin, one of Mark Cavendish's lead out men, produced a well timed effort to Kittel Albasini on the line. This takes Omega Pharma Quickstep's stage wins in this year's Tour to four and is Trentin's first stage win – see list of all-time overall stage winners.

The leading GC rider in the break, Andrew Talansky gained over seven minutes to move up to 12th overall - minutes behind Chris Froome. However, I suspect that this gain may prove to be short lived as Talansky may well pay for yesterday's efforts on the Ventoux.

Today's stage from Givors to the top of Mont Ventoux is both the longest stage (242.5K) of this year's tour and one of the most challenging. During the 1980s we camped in a site close to Vaison la Romaine and over several years I cycled up the Ventoux a good half a dozen times. Usually I went up from Malaucène, which is still a tough route up but nothing like as tough as the classic route up from Bédoin. I went up from Bédoin once and it was possibly the toughest climb I have ever done.

At 240 metres Bédoin is over 100 metres lower than Malaucène (365m) – the top of Ventoux is at 1912m, so 1672 metres (5486 feet) of climbing. The road up was not as smooth and well metalled as much of the route up from Malaucène  – as this is a long time ago this may well have changed. You roll through Bédoin and the road gently climbs past vineyards (Côtes du Ventoux) for about a couple of kilometres before you get to a forest, the road turns left and the real climb starts with the road rears straight up. It goes on and on until around six kilometres from the top when you reach Chalet Reynaud and the moonscape begins. Climbing up through the woods you at least have some shade and protection from the wind but from the Chalet onwards there is no protection from the potentially strong winds and the Mediterranean sun and heat. About 1K from the summit the riders will pass the Tommy Simpson memorial that commemorates the British rider who collapsed and died here during the 1967 Tour. 

It promises to be a great stage. Will Chris Froome find himself isolated before they get to the base of the Ventoux? Will he prove to be the strongest on the climb? Has Alberto got his climbing legs back? And what of Quintana? Will the two Belkin riders – Bauke Mollema and Laurens ten Dam – continue to impress? Will the stage be won by a GC rider or by a rider from a breakaway. Whatever happens there will certainly be changes to the overall classification tonight.  

Overall standings

 1. Chris Froome                       55.22.58
 2. Bauke Mollema                        2.28

 3. Alberto Contador                     2.45

 4. Roman Kreuziger                     2.48

 5. Laurens Ten Dam                     3.01
 6. Jacob Fuglsang                        4.39

7. Michal Kwiatkowski          4.44 (White Jersey for best young rider)

 8. Nairo Quintana                        5.18

 9. Jean-Christophe Peraud            5.39 (the leading French rider)

10. Joaquin Rodriguez                   5.48

11. Daniel Martin                          5.52
12. Andrew Talansky                    5.54

13. Cadel Evans                            6.54
14. Michael Rogers                        7.28
15. Andy Schleck                          8.32

16. Maxime Monfort                    10.16

17. Alejandro Valverde                12.10

18. Rui Faria da Costa                 14.22

19. Daniel Navarro                      14.50
20. Sylvain Chavanel                   14.57